Seattle’s 21-month streak as the nation’s hottest housing market has come to an end. The streak, which began in August 2016, was the second longest for any metro area in Case-Shiller’s 31-year history. Portland’s 23-month streak in the early 90s remains the longest.

In the latest Case-Shiller home price index released this week, Las Vegas bumped Seattle to number two as home prices grew 13 percent from June 2017 to June 2018. Seattle experienced the biggest one-month home price deceleration in four years as growth dipped from 13.6 percent in May to 12.8 percent in June.

Seattle has now been among the top two hottest housing markets for 30 consecutive months. Prior to becoming number one, Seattle was second behind Portland for about half a year.

Nevada recently passed Washington on the list of states with the fastest-rising home prices after Washington led the country for a year and half. Nevada remains around $100,000 cheaper than Washington for the average home, and Seattle three times more expensive than Las Vegas.

A Zillow analysis shows that Seattle had the biggest slowdown in housing prices in the country. In June 2017, Seattle led the country with a home-value growth of 14.8 percent. Now, it is the 12th fastest-appreciating housing market with a year-over-year growth of 9.1 percent.

This slowdown can be attributed to a number of factors, including the growing number of inventory and decrease in the number of new residents. According to Zillow, Seattle had 13.2 percent more homes on the market in July than the year prior.

When it comes to new residents, the city was averaging 74 new people per day last year. Now, that number has dropped by more than a third to 46 new people per day.

Ashley J. Hayes is a devoted, passionate, real estate professional
with over 14 years experience in residential sales and leasing in
Washington & Oregon State. As a Pacific Northwest native, she
is foundationally identified as “UrbanAsh” for her unique expertise
and knowledge of in-city living as a longtime resident, landlord
and top producer in the Seattle Real Estate market.